The article is devoted to crowdfunding as a rapidly developing area of investing in start-ups in any sphere. It was during the difficult period for the science that particular importance was given to crowdfunding as a collective cooperation of people (donors), who voluntarily collect their money or other resources usually via Internet to support other people’ efforts or organizations in starting innovative venture projects. Crowdfunding as a tool to search and test investment ideas are gaining popularity in Russia nowadays for it allows to attract funding start-ups and venture capital for projects of all types and related activities, the only limiting factor being quality of the advertising campaigns and public interest for the project. This innovative model of financing projects of different types can be used on a much wider scale, at the level of enterprises and even by government agencies. Similar financing venture projects can be actively implemented, for example, in the system of higher education institutions through the establishing – by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation – of a specialized on-line platform where research teams are entitled to position their projects.